Thankful. November 4.

My daughter came home from school and presented me with these three leaves that she picked up on her walk home.
I am grateful for two things:
1. I live in a place with changing seasons.  I get to feel snow in the winter, smell lilacs in the spring, feel thunder shake my house in a summer storm and see these absolutely gorgeous fall colors.
2.  It makes my heart happy that at eleven years old, she still collects things for me. 

Thankful. November 3.

A puppy. Who doesn't love a puppy?  I am thankful for this puppy for several reasons. 

1. She's cute. 

2.  My daughter has wanted a dog for-ev-er. Forever. Seriously forever. 

3. She serendipitously came into our lives, relieving me of the responsibility of choosing to seek out a puppy. 

4.  Every kid should have a kitten and/or a puppy once. We survived the kitten. Now is our chance to survive a puppy. 

5.  It's a good life experience. 

Thankful. November 2.

I am so thankful for this man, who, without complaint, sits through multiple selfies and patiently looks where I tell him to so that I can have a satisfactory picture of the two of us. 

He's pretty awesome and this is just one reason why. 

And yes, the wind blew my hair in my eyes, but this was way better than tries 1 and 2, so we went with it. Even I have limits. 

Thankful: November 1

 I have been struggling with this whole, "I am going to spend November cataloging all of the things I have to be thankful for" trend.  I think that it fantastic that we all stop complaining and criticizing and instead examine the blessings in our lives, BUT I get my panties all in a bunch when I start to read the laundry list of how awesome everyone's lives are. Is this a contest?

That being said, I do want to take the time to think about the things in my life that are wonderful and special and bring a smile to my face.  And I am going to be completely honest about some of the weird things that just make me happy to have my life.  (Plus I hate to be left out, so I am totally joining in.)






 November 1:  I am grateful for fantastic fall colors, with a side serving of appreciation for the fact that my neighbors don't call the police on me when they see me crawling through their yards with my camera.  You see, I don't have any pretty trees in my yard, sniff, sniff.

Between that yellow (Silver Maple, maybe?) and the red of the Burning Bush, I was in love.









Also, I am thankful that I didn't make a total fool of myself by slipping, tripping, falling or doing something equally as clumsy as I took these photos on one of the busiest streets in town.

Sensible Shoes

When I got dressed this morning, I said to JJ, "We won't be walking too much today, will we?" 

Ugh.  

We started by trying, once again, to have breakfast at Dottie's True Blue Diner.  We walked the two long blocks down there only to discover that they are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Whoops.  Back to Show Dog we went. 

 We were a little unsure because it was one of those places that boasted organic foods.  To me, that means, "not simple."  We were pleasantly surprised.  The food was really good.  KJ had pancakes with a chai syrup.  We didn't tell him until after he pronounced it "delicious" what he was actually eating.  JJ had a hot dog breakfast concoction.

After that, we hopped a bus to Golden Gate Park.  In my head, Golden Gate Park was going to be like Millennium Park.  In reality, it is massively humongous.  It is three miles long.  And we got off the bus at the east end and intended to walk to the west end and hit the beach.  And we did that, but it took much longer than anticipated.  Note to self: do a little more research next time, especially when sidewalks are, um, narrow. 

The kids were awesome.  There was no whining or complaining.  We took a side trip and rode a paddle boat around Stow Lake.  We made friends with squirrels.  We walked and walked and walked and walked.  And then we walked some some more.

We got to the ocean and it was cold and windy and beautiful.  

We explored some freak alien-looking kelp and some jellyfish that had washed up on the beach.  

We stuck out feet in the cold water.  After I saw those jellyfish, I wasn't letting anyone go in very deep.  

We watched a fisherman fish and feed the ones that were too small to keep to the gulls.  It was like Wild Kingdom the way those gulls fought over the fish.

Once we finished there, we walked and walked looking for the next bus stop.  It wasn't where we thought it was, so we walked some more.   We did find the Tsunami Evacuation Route.  That's not something we've ever seen in Illinois.

We took the bus up to Land's End.  When we realized that we were going to have to hike down and then back up another huge hill, we gave up that dream and walked back to the bus stop to head to Pier 39.

Are you catching the theme for the day?

It's walking.

We visited The Aquarium of the Bay out on Pier 39.  That was the kids' choice.  They love fish.  :) The aquarium is small, but cool.  (I am spoiled by Shedd.) The best part was the two tunnel aquariums that you get to walk through.  Yes, walk.  

Finished up with a final dinner at Sam's Diner.  Now we are packed and ready to head home with very mixed feelings.  

And tired feet.  

But at least no one reeks of garlic tonight.

Stupid Technology

Lost last night's recap somehow, so I am going to make this short and sweet.

Rented a car for the day to drive to Muir Woods.  JJ navigated the city like a pro.  The road to Muir Woods was mildly terrifying with the twists and turns and thick fog.  I thought we might fall off the edge of the earth. Boo really struggled with car sickness.

Got there early enough that we were in the second parking lot easily.  By the time we left 3 1/2 hours later, people were parked a mile down the road.  It was a lovely hike.  Very few bugs.  Lots and lots of hills.  Oh, and coastal redwoods.  Did you know that they get 25-50% of their water from the fog?

Oh, wait, I am making this short and sweet.

Had lunch at Fred's Diner in Sausalito.  JJ had their deep fried French toast and millionaire's bacon.  Yeah.  It was pretty darn good.

Tried to walk the Golden Gate Bridge from the north side, but couldn't figure out how to get to it. I'm ok with it.  This photo was worth the dead-end.

So we headed back south and miraculously got a parking space in the second lot on the San Francisco side. We walked about 1/3 of the way across the bridge before the kids had enough.  I won't lie to you, between the crowds, the wind and the rumble of traffic, my knees were a little weak.  Looking down didn't bother me.  Looking up took an act of sheer will, and a wide stance.

After the bridge, we decided to go looking for the Mythbusters studio.  They don't give tours (pouty face) but at least we can say we saw where it is. It is so much smaller than I expected!  Nothing fancy.

We returned the rental car, hopped the California Cable Car line (so much less crowded than the other lines) down to Market Street and then walked back to the hotel.

One more day.  Everyone is a little sad about it.

There's no hills in Illinois

I hope you pronounced the "s" in Illinois, because that's how I meant for it to be read.

We slept in this morning.  We are getting used to the time difference, which will suck when we head back home.

Had breakfast at Sam's.  I think they will start to consider us regulars before the week is out.  It's convenient and the food is great.

Hopped on the F Line trolley to start today's adventure: climbing to Coit Tower.  We weren't exactly sure where the stairs were, but when we came across a sign that read, "Stairs to Coit Tower," we figured we were on the right path.

And stairs, they are.  And they have a name:  The Filbert Steps.  It's something like 397 stairs to the top.  It is beautiful, but holy hell, it's a workout. I stopped several times to catch my bre-, I mean take some photos.  I cannot believe that people live on that hill.  Where do they put out their garbage?  Do they have to drag it up and down those stairs? No garbage truck is getting anywhere near those houses.

We decided not to go up in the tower itself. The line was long and we had another hill to climb, so

we went back down the other side.  It was less scenic, but a workout in itself as we had to put on the brakes.

The next hill we climbed was Lombard Street, as we made our way up to the World's Crookedest Street.  No stairs, just a near 30% grade.  I didn't dare turn around for fear I would topple over backwards.  For reals.  For this photo, I turned the virtual horizon on the make sure I was holding it flat.

The Crooked Street is a sight to behold.  It is beautifully landscaped, but again, people actually LIVE on this thing.  I can't imagine the headache that comes along with the constant stream of tourists driving down your road daily at 5 mph. We climbed to the top, along the convenient stairs, and I took a photo looking back at Coit.  Photos don't do it justice, but it was one hell of a 1-mile walk.

We hopped on a cable car and, much to the kids' dismay, stopped at the free Cable Car Museum.  The cable cars are so awesome.  You can actually see the workings of the cables.  It is amazing.  After we left there, I paid more attention and realized that you can hear the cables running underground.

After the Cable Car Museum, we walked through China Town.  It was one of those things that I wanted to be able to say we did.  We purchased such typical Chinese things as a fan, a bottle of water and a Gatorade.  

We wrapped up the day with some shopping.  JJ needed a hat to cover his poor sunburned head.  KJ took advantage of the buy one, get one half-off to get himself a flat bill Raiders hat.  These two have serious street cred.  Boo and I hit Pandora and an awesome stationery store.  

After four days, I can now distinctly discern the scent of homeless person and pot.  It took me until I was nearly 40 years old to figure the second one out.  Pretty sad, huh?

Time to get a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow's adventure is renting a car and actually driving in the city.